During the course of caring for patients, sterile irrigation water is commonly used to irrigate and cleanse incisions or open wound sites. In hospitals, this irrigation procedure can be performed in the operating room, in the emergency room or in the patient's hospital room. Alternatively, irrigation procedures may be performed in the doctor's office, ambulance or in first aid centers.
For this purpose, sterile liquid, such as irrigation water or saline, is generally supplied in sealed containers. Accordingly, it is desirable to have available irrigation kits comprising sterilizable utensils capable of holding and delivering this irrigation liquid to an incision or wound site. In certain instances, incisions or wound sites are preferably irrigated by pouring a relatively thin stream of liquid directly on the site.
Present irrigation containers are open wide-mouth bowls, basins or pitchers. In common surgical practice, umbilical ties and vascular loops are frequently draped on the open upper edge of these irrigation containers for ready access, particularly during the irrigation procedures. However, when an irrigation syringe is received in the container and is operated for withdrawing irrigation liquid, the syringe can accidentally also aspirate such tapes or loops. There is a need, therefore, for an irrigation container constructed to hold an irrigation syringe in a manner which avoids the foregoing problem while liquid is being withdrawn.
Irrigation containers frequently are combined with other surgical utensils for operating room kits and frequently are sealed for sterilization. A problem arises, however, when the height of the irrigation container exceeds the height of another kit item, such as a ring stand basin, causing a bulge which can result in tearing of the overwrapping and break the sterile seal. A bulge also limits the number of kits which can be placed in a sterilizer.
Desirably, an irrigation container is formed of sterilizable plastic and is nestable for convenient stacking storage. However, when plastic containers are nested, the sidewalls of one container tend to fictionally interlock with the sidewall of another making separation of individual containers difficult.
Accordingly what is needed, therefore, is an irrigation container which offers the benefits of a lipless reservoir for holding irrigation liquid from which a desired amount can be withdrawn by an irrigation syringe for delivery to a wound site and that of a spouted pouring container for delivering a relatively narrow stream of irrigation liquid directly to an incision or wound site. Moreover, an ideal irrigation container should also be stabilized against sideways tipping and suited for use in sterilizable irrigation units and kits.
The irrigation container of the present invention overcomes the foregoing problems and meets the desired needs.